A Wise Man Who Unwisely Underestimated a Precocious Teenager
In 60 BC, Cicero declined an invitation to join Caesar, Pompey, and Crassus in what became known as the First Triumvirate. He deemed the arrangement unconstitutional, and did all he could to undo it by driving wedges between the Triumvirs. Crassus was killed in battle in 53 BC, and Pompey and Caesar fell out eventually. The latter marched on Italy in 49 BC. Cicero sat out the civil war that followed, and spent that period in scholarly pursuits and writing books and treatises.
After Caesar’s assassination in 44 BC, Cicero promoted the cause of Gaius Octavius, Caesar’s adopted son and heir. The Roman philosopher and statesman sought to use the teenager as a cat’s paw in his conflict against Mark Antony, whom Cicero loathed and against whom he penned and orated scathing critiques known as The Philippics. Cicero quipped that he would “praise, raise, and erase” Octavius. He greatly underestimated the youth. As the future Augustus, Octavius would end the Roman Republic and replace it with the Roman Empire. As seen below, Cicero did not fare well in the new era.
